Dental intraoral digital sensors have been in used in dentistry for the last two decades; their popularity is gaining and will eventually replace x-ray film as the imaging medium of choice for the dental profession. The intraoral digital sensors have mainly been used to capture digital radiographic images of teeth, gum, and bone allowing the dental practitioner to communicate clinical findings to the patient via computer software that can capture and display the image. Like the traditional intraoral dental X-ray film packet, intraoral dental digital sensors are placed in the patient's mouth with digital sensor holders of similar designs to produce the same geometry used in dental film radiography techniques. Therefore, currently, the available intraoral digital sensor holders have evolved directly from intraoral dental X-ray film packet holders of the past, and most have retained the identical components of the X-ray film holder with only minor dimensional changes and adaptations to secure an intraoral digital sensor instead of intraoral X-ray film with little thought to the major physical differences between the intraoral X-ray film and intraoral digital sensor.
There are significant physical differences between the typical intraoral digital sensor versus the traditional intraoral X-ray film packet. The intraoral X-ray film packet has a thickness of about one to two millimeters, and is relatively flexible and soft versus the thicker and completely rigid intraoral digital sensor. The intraoral digital sensor is much thicker than the X-ray film packet, having a thickness of four to eight millimeters, it is also rigid, attached to a long flexible cord to interface with the computer. Because of these intrinsic physical differences, the traditional universal X-ray film holding device tends to be a relatively thick (4-5 mm) rigid device because the jaws of the X-ray film holder must clamp and holdfast a thin, often wet flexible piece of X-ray film in place during use. The flexible X-ray film packet is soft and pliable when placed in the patient's oral cavity and is generally more tolerable for most patients in terms of comfort. However, because the intraoral digital sensor is much ticker and rigid compared to the X-ray film, the exact opposite qualities of thinness and flexibility is desired in an intraoral digital sensor holder in respect to maximizing patient comfort. Therefore, there are deficiencies in the current designs of existing universal digital sensor holders or systems with respect to maximizing patient comfort during use and, also as a class, current designs lack any physical protection to keep the digital sensor cable from being damaged due to the patient's teeth biting on the sensor cable. Current data show that damage to the digital sensor cable accounts for about ninety percent of the damage suffered by dental digital sensors during normal use. The cost of replacing the damaged digital sensor cable can be several hundred to several thousand dollars.
Another issue the user of the rigid intra-oral digital sensor often encounters is patient discomfort due to the impingement of the hard rigid sensor against the sensitive soft tissues of the patient. This problem is further exacerbated by an inflexible rigid sensor holder.